To some condo residents, vacationers bad company

Victoria councillors urged to place limits on short-term vacation rentals downtown

Short-term vacation rentals are causing headaches for many downtown Victoria condo owners who are urging city council to restrict the practice.

Vacation rentals are permitted in downtown condominiums in some zones. City staff say requiring condo owners to have a business licence for vacation rentals would generate cash through fees. It would also help with developing regulations through the gathering of information about the vacation rentals market.

But after hearing last week from several downtown condo residents who said they want the commercialization of their highrise homes curtailed rather than encouraged, councillors decided to revisit the issue.

“It’s an interesting debate. It basically exposes a tension or even a conflict between the right to shelter and property rights, and council’s going to have to decide where it lands on that issue,” said Coun. Ben Isitt.

“What we’re hearing from residents downtown is that they don’t want transient accommodation in their buildings. They don’t like people coming and going. They feel there’s more of a security risk. They want neighbours — not, essentially, tourists — and they think the tourists should be in hotels.”

Several residents complained vacation rentals owned by absentee investors are causing problems with things such as building security, noise and garbage.

Peter Bonyun, a condominium owner in the Humboldt Valley, said he believes short-term vacation rentals are “destructive to the permanent community” in condominiums.

“Simply, condominiums are not hotels; they’re not staffed or equipped to handle vacationers who often create excessive noise and certainly do not treat the building with the same respect that owners do,” Bonyun said.

He said downtown condo residents deserve the same protection as those in any other part of the city and that the “hollowing out” of resident owners undermines a livable downtown.

Stewart Ballantyne, a resident owner in the Belvedere building, called for a ban on vacation rentals in downtown condominiums.

“We’ve had a number of [shortterm vacation rentals] in our building and all too often these short-term visitors arrive with no knowledge of our bylaws,” he said. “They often have little respect for the building and they’re oblivious to the fact that they are entering someone’s residence.”

Victoria Adams presented councillors with a petition signed by more than 1,100 seeking to prohibit vacations rentals used as alternative hotel accommodation in all neighbourhoods.

She said vacation rentals are exacerbating the housing crisis in Victoria, where the majority of households are tenants and rental costs are third highest in the country.

Vacation rentals downtown exceed the total room capacity of 30 downtown hotels, she said.

Short-term vacation rentals “operate as lucrative, unlicensed and untaxed businesses in condo complexes, apartments, as well as secondary suites in a city with a vacancy rate of less than 0.5 per cent,” she said.

“The latest census reports that there are some 3,400 unoccupied dwellings in Victoria. Fifteen per cent of downtown units — over 900 of them — were vacant. A quarter of all condos are now rented, many of which are shortterm vacation rentals.”